Feb. 16



Holocaust denier jailed in Germany


In Mannheim, a German court on Thursday convicted far-right activist
Ernst Zundel of incitement for denying the Holocaust, and sentenced him
to the maximum five years in prison.

The 67-year-old, who was deported from Canada in 2005, was convicted on 14
counts of incitement for years of anti-Semitic activities, including
denying the Holocaust -- a crime in Germany -- in documents and on the
Internet.

Zundel showed no emotion when Judge Ulrich Meinerzhagen read the verdict,
only nodding occasionally.

Zundel and his supporters have argued that he was a peaceful campaigner
being denied his right to free speech, and attorney Ludwig Bock
immediately said he would appeal.

"What is notable is the iron-hard refusal of the court to allow
consideration of new scientific findings or expert opinions," Bock said.

The trial against Zundel, who also has lived in the U.S. state of
Tennessee, began in November, after a first trial attempt collapsed in
March over a dispute with one of his attorneys, Sylvia Stolz, who was
banned from proceedings on the grounds that she was attempting sabotage by
denouncing the court as a "tool of foreign domination."

In the current trial, Bock quoted from Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" and
from Nazi race laws in his closing statements last week as he argued for
Zundel's acquittal.

Bock accused the Mannheim state court of not wanting to face a "scientific
analysis" of the Holocaust, and charged that prosecutors -- one of whom
has termed Zundel a "rat catcher" -- had defamed his client.

Another of Zundel's five attorneys, Herbert Schaller, told the court that
all evidence for the Holocaust was based only on witness reports, instead
of hard facts.

In his own closing arguments, prosecutor Andreas Grossmann called Zundel a
"political con man" from whom the German people must be protected, and
quoted from his writings arguing argue that millions of Jews did not die
at the hands of the Nazis.

"You might as well argue that the sun rises in the west," Grossmann said
when asking that Zundel be given the maximum sentence. "But you cannot
change that the Holocaust has been proven."

(source: CNN)